First Waxcap of 2025 - and about time too

The honour goes to the Golden Waxcap (Hygrocybe chlorophana) which is fruiting in the South and West fields. I'd had seven species by this same date last year so I'm not sure what to expect over the next month.

Big year for Parasols

Fungi sites I have been to over the last few weeks all seem to have stacks of Parasols (Macrolepiota procera). Now they have started appearing in the East Field. It's been interesting this year how the unusual weather conditions, hot and dry in the spring/summer and wet recently have favoured some species and not been good for others. Certainly lots and lots of 7-spot Ladybirds and for fungi lots of Field Mushrooms and Parasols and no sign of the usual waxcaps.

Many Pinkgills - no Waxcaps (yet)

A strange grassland fungi season has started with (I think) five species of Pinkgills here and no Waxcaps yet. I am unable to check spores at the moment so id is difficult but I am confident I have found Entoloma ameides known as the Scented or Bubblegum Pinkgill. The smell was fruity/chemical and strong and I had alteady reached a conclusion before checking the eDNA survey done two years ago. There indeed was E. amiedes so that's a wrap. I found it in both the East and West field.

Fallow Deer Group

There's been a group with four females and a couple of youngsters spending a fair amount of time here over the last few weeks. Now they seem to have acquired a buck!

Lots of Larch Boletes (Suillus grevillei)

A group of about 25 to 30 specimens under one of our two large Larch trees. Luckily this is one of the more easily identified Boletes with its distinctive colours, upward facing ring, rusty coloured bruising of the small yellow pores and, of course, association with Larch trees.

Wood Cauliflower in woods near Maryland turn

An impressive fungus at the base of a Scots Pine turns out to be a Wood Cauliflower (Sparassis crispa). A first for me and that's one woodland fungus I will remember,

Grassland fungi season starting here

Later than usual because of the very dry summer I guess, but things are starting to fruit in the fields. I now have many Field Mushrooms (eaten on toast yesterday) plus another less common agaric now known as the Mini Mushroom (Agaricus comtulus) which has appeared in two places and some Orange Mosscaps(Rickenella fibula) in the East Field. Photo is Mini Mushroom

First Pinkgill of 2025 - Silky Pinkgill

A couple of Silky Pinkgills (Entoloma sericeum) in the rough grass outside the kitchen are the first 'CHEGD' fungi of the year. Usually I see Waxcaps before Pinkgills but no Waxcaps have appeared this year yet. The Silky pinkgill is a relatively common Pinkgill but not one I see every year.